At a Glance
- Tasks: Develop innovative Lab Brains tools to support dementia research and improve lab workflows.
- Company: Join a leading research institute focused on AI and scientific advancements.
- Benefits: Enjoy 27 days leave, private medical cover, and hybrid working options.
- Other info: Collaborative environment with opportunities for personal and professional growth.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in dementia research while honing your software development skills.
- Qualifications: No degree required; just show your software development experience and passion.
The predicted salary is between 44595 - 54505 £ per year.
This 12-month fixed-term Research Engineer post sits in the UK DRI Research Operations Division and builds Lab Brains, agents and connected tools that help dementia laboratories understand their work and act on next steps. Core work is hands-on software development, piloting tools with lab staff and turning their recurring problems into software they choose to use. It is a technical leadership role within the Institute-wide AI initiative, working as a peer to a scientific knowledge engineer. Visa sponsorship is not offered.
What the job involves:
- Build Lab Brains agents and connected tools that help labs understand their work, recover its history and follow through on next steps.
- Work directly with researchers, technicians and lab managers to turn recurring problems into software they choose to use.
- Build workflows linking meeting notes, approved Slack conversations, Linear projects and Labstep experimental records, with links to code, data and documents.
- Build agents that recover experimental history, preserve decisions and negative or inconclusive results, identify missing context and propose follow-up for approval.
- Build reusable integrations that handle changing records, permissions, retries and failures without extra manual record-keeping.
- Build interfaces and review controls that show where an answer came from, allow correction and let users choose what is shared beyond their lab.
- Create a tested route for distributing tools across participating labs, with documentation, dependable releases and clear support ownership.
- Compare existing agents, scientific software and commercial tools on real workflows and develop an adoption strategy for the Institute.
- Champion these agents to senior management, revisit them as the ecosystem changes and advise what to extend, change or stop.
- Work with the Scientific Knowledge & Field Building engineer to connect authorised lab knowledge to wider scientific questions and return requests or opportunities to labs.
- Treat reproducibility as part of the product by preserving versions, methods, code and evidence needed to inspect or repeat an analysis.
- Evaluate task completion, source accuracy, net time saved, recurring use, running costs and failure modes, keeping mistakes and rejected suggestions visible.
Qualifications:
- No degree or PhD needed where equivalent capability is shown.
Experience:
- Evidence of shipping software that other people use.
- Practical experience building LLM applications or comparable intelligent automation, including tool or API integration, evaluation and debugging.
- Experience connecting systems and handling authentication, data access, changing records and operational failures.
Skills & knowledge:
- Strong programming ability, with the ability to learn the languages and tools the codebase needs.
- Sound software engineering practice: Git with GitHub or equivalent, code review, automated testing, continuous integration, documentation, packaging, dependency management and maintainable releases.
- Product judgement to find a useful problem with users, choose a manageable first version and improve it from feedback.
- Commitment to reproducible science and collaborative software development, shown through work others can inspect, run or improve.
- Enthusiasm and ability to influence how an organisation drives change through technology adoption.
- Ability to work autonomously and lead, setting priorities, justifying decisions, bringing others along and owning outcomes.
Nice to have:
- Research software or scientific computing experience.
- Laboratory workflow experience.
- Developer tools or open-source package experience.
- Electronic lab notebook or task system experience.
What’s offered:
- 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, and up to 6 business closure days each year.
- Single private medical cover, plus income protection and critical illness cover.
- Group life assurance up to 4x base salary.
- Employee assistance programme.
- Enhanced maternity, paternity, neonatal and adoption pay.
- Pension with 6.1% employee and 15.9% employer contributions.
- Interest-free season ticket loan and voluntary benefits discounts.
- Hybrid working, with up to 1-2 days a week remote.
Research Engineer - Lab Brains & Scientific Workflows (12 months FTC) in London employer: UK Dementia Research Institute
UCL is an exceptional employer, offering a vibrant work culture that prioritises service excellence and collaboration across various professional services. With generous benefits such as 41 days of holiday, a defined benefit pension scheme, and a commitment to equality and diversity, UCL fosters an inclusive environment where employees can thrive and grow in their careers while contributing to meaningful organisational transformation.
Contact Details:
UK Dementia Research Institute Recruitment Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Research Engineer - Lab Brains & Scientific Workflows (12 months FTC) in London
✨Get Involved in Open-Source Projects
Diving into open-source projects is a brilliant way to showcase your skills and connect with other developers in the community. Not only will you beef up your GitHub profile but you might also catch the eye of someone at UK Dementia Research Institute who values hands-on experience over just theory.
✨Attend Local Tech Meetups
Tech meetups are gold mines for networking and discovering job opportunities, especially in the fast-paced world of software engineering. Check out local listings for events in your area and don’t shy away from introducing yourself. This could lead directly to a temporary position at UK Dementia Research Institute!
✨Showcase Your Work Online
With temporary roles, it’s all about standing out in a short space of time. Create a portfolio website where you highlight your projects and skills. Talk about your code, and provide links to your GitHub repositories. This will not only demonstrate your abilities but will also make it easier for recruiters at UK Dementia Research Institute to see what you bring to the table.
✨Leverage Temporary Job Boards
Don’t forget to check specialised job boards for temporary software development roles. Websites like We Work Remotely or Remote OK often list short-term gigs that can be a perfect fit. Apply directly through our website as well, making sure your application is sharp—temporary roles can move fast!
We think you need these skills to ace Research Engineer - Lab Brains & Scientific Workflows (12 months FTC) in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Tech Skills:Make sure your CV highlights your tech stack and any programming languages you’re proficient in. Include specifics about any frameworks or technologies you’ve worked with; they can make you stand out in the sea of applicants. It’s all about showing that you have the chops we need at UK Dementia Research Institute!
Portfolio 2.0:Since you’re applying for a temporary gig, it’s super important to showcase a portfolio that highlights your best projects. Include links to GitHub or any personal projects that demonstrate what you can do in a real-world environment. This gives us a taste of your style and your problem-solving approach!
Keep It Brief and Relevant:With a temporary position, we want to see your ability to hit the ground running. Be concise in your CV and cover letter; stick to experiences that directly relate to the role. Highlight any previous temporary roles or freelance gigs that show your adaptability and quick learning!
Tailor Your Cover Letter:Don’t just send a generic cover letter. Personalise it for Research Engineer - Lab Brains & Scientific Workflows (12 months FTC) at UK Dementia Research Institute! Mention why this temporary role excites you and how you see yourself contributing in the short run. Show us what you've got and why you're the one for this quick turn-around!
How to prepare for a job interview at UK Dementia Research Institute
✨Nail the Technical Skills
For a software engineering role, you'll likely face technical questions or coding tasks during your interview. Brush up on the relevant programming languages and frameworks that UK Dementia Research Institute uses, and don’t forget to practice some coding challenges on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank. Showing your coding prowess can really make you stand out!
✨Prepare for System Design Questions
Even for a temporary role, having a grasp of system design principles can be crucial. Be ready to discuss how you would architect a software solution, including discussing trade-offs, scalability, and performance considerations. Having examples from previous projects can really show off your analytical thinking.
✨Demonstrate Your Adaptability
Since this is a temporary role, you'll want to emphasise your ability to hit the ground running. Highlight experiences where you quickly adapted to new technologies or teams. Let’s make it clear to the interviewers at UK Dementia Research Institute that you can learn on the job and deliver results in a short timeframe!
✨Show Off Your Portfolio
Make sure to have a portfolio or GitHub ready showcasing your projects. Having tangible evidence of what you've done—be it personal projects, contributions to open-source, or previous work—can convey how capable you are. Tailor this for what might interest UK Dementia Research Institute, so it's relevant and sparks conversation during your interview.
